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A Look Into the Crystal Ball
Finds Two Different Futures

By

Don Clark

Updated Nov. 18, 1996 5:27 p.m. ET

Jim Allchin and Eric Schmidt tend to agree -- like cats and dogs.

Mr. Allchin is Microsoft Corp.'s senior vice president in charge of operating systems. In that job, he is leading a crusade to move the company's franchise beyond desktop PCs to the data centers where big computers are run.

That's the citadel of Sun Microsystems Inc., where Mr. Schmidt is chief technology officer. Sun's machines, based on the Unix operating...